I confess, I have examined the evidence surrounding the fact that some elements of American society presume that President Obama is not who he really claims to be. In some versions of reality, Obama is an Indonesian man named Barry Soetero who was once in a homosexual marriage to a Pakistani man. In other versions of reality, Obama was born in Kenya and has secretly usurped the Constitution and the United States government.
And true, save for video evidence, it is hard to conclusively prove one's place of birth, but let's entertain the possibility that Obama was born in Kenya. If Obama was indeed born in Kenya, then we'd have no choice but to impeach him because he lied about his place of birth and such levels of deception are indicative of large character flaws that should disqualify a candidate from office. However, if Obama had confessed to being born in Kenya in the first place, could he have run for the presidency of the United States? The truth is that the Supreme Court has not determined exactly what the definition of "natural-born citizen" is.
We know from precedent that natural-born includes anyone born in the United States. Martin van Buren was the first natural-born president of the United States, since all the presidents before him were born British citizens; meaning that he was the first president born after the War of Independence. His parents were Dutch, and his first language was Dutch, so clearly the only requirement for someone to be president or VP is being born in the United States. However, it has not been established by the Supreme Court whether someone born outside of the US to US citizens is also a natural-born citizen.
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| My first language is Dutch and my parents were both Dutch, But Obama is a filthy Kenyan! |
Running against Obama in the 2008 elections was a Senator by the name of John McCain, who was born in Panama. There was no opposition to the fact that McCain was born in Panama because his father was on official navy business. Many conservative commentators were extremely insulted at the fact that someone would dare question the natural-borness of someone who was born abroad as a result of a military deployment.
But beyond birth abroad by forced military deployment, it was the case that George Romney ran for the presidency in 1968. George was born in Mexico due to some Mormon-polygamy-chicanery that involved running south of the border. There were challenges to George's candidacy, but the mere fact that he was a candidate only serves to highlight that natural-born when it concerns US citizens born abroad has not been established by the Supreme Court.
And then we come to the hypothetical case of a man being born to an American woman in the British Protectorate of Kenya. If a man who had been born in the British Protectorate of Kenya were to run for the presidency of the United States, there's nothing holding him back. The Supreme Court has not determined whether the son of an American woman born abroad is or is not a natural-born US citizen. There is however no doubt about the fact that Obama was a US citizen by birth regardless of where; he would be a US citizen even if born near one of the Apollo landing sites on the moon.
Recently, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas was asked if he was considering a candidacy for the presidency in 2016. Senator Cruz was born in Canada, but his mother was a US citizen. When confronted on the constitutional definition of natural-born, he simply stated that he wasn't willing to go into the constitutional question. Given the fact that Senator Cruz is a Senator and has filibuster power, it would take 60 votes in the Senate to disqualify someone born in Kenya to a US woman from the presidency.
In fact, though I myself was not a US citizen by birth, some have told me that I was natural-born because my mother was entitled to US citizenship. I don't know when my great-grandfather was born, but if he was born after Puerto Rico became part of the United States [Spanish American war; 1898] then there's nothing save for a decision from the Supreme Court telling Obama or myself that we are not eligible for the presidency of the United States. The fact of the matter is that if Obama lied about being born in Kenya, he should be impeached, but there's nothing preventing a person born in Kenya from being the president of the US.
